Three-time World champion takes Russian team’s Spanish contingent up to seven; hopes to lend developing riders the benefit of his experience
The Katusha team has officially announced the signature of three-time World champion Oscar Freire, who takes the Russian team’s Spanish compliment up to seven. ‘Oscarito’ has spent the past nine seasons riding for Rabobank, but after a disappointing season, where he has been plagued by breathing difficulties, negotiations for a tenth year with the Dutch team ending earlier this month.
Although Katusha is nominally the Russian Cycling Project, its most successful riders this season have been Spaniards Joaquim Rodriguez and Dani Moreno; Rodriguez also finished last season as World number one, with victory in the season-long International Cycling Union (UCI) WorldTour. These two, and current teammates Joan Horrach and Alberto Losada, will be joined by Xavier Florencio, from Geox-TMC, and Angel Vicioso, from Androni Giocattoli-CIPI, as well as Freire.
“I know a lot of riders from Katusha,” said Freire, “and I am fully motivated and in condition for the upcoming season and will try my best to give Katusha as much success as possible. On the other hand, it will be a pleasure for me to teach young riders and share my experience with them.”
One of Katusha’s best emerging riders is its highest-ranked Russian Denis Galimzyanov. The 24-year-old sprinter began to come of age this season with victories that included Paris-Brussels and a stage of the Tour of Beijing, and a teammate with the experience of Freire will surely help in his further development.
“In the world of sports, Oscar is one of the most impressive riders of the last decades,” said Igor Makarov, President of the Russian Cycling Federation and chief of the Russian Cycling Project. “I think he will provide a huge influence to the development of young riders of Katusha Team as well as to the development of the Russian Global Cycling Project. After all, Oscar Freire is three times world champion on the road, the winner of Milan-Sanremo, stages at the Tour de France and Vuelta a España.”
2011 was the least successful season of Freire’s long career since 1999, when his surprise World championship victory in Verona, Italy, saved his career. The year began well, with two stages of the Ruta del Sol, but the 35-year-old was dogged by breathing difficulties, which saw him sit out the Giro d’Italia. He missed out on selection for the Tour de France, and was then forced to abandon the Vuelta a España with the same problem that had forced him to miss the Giro.
Despite these problems he continued to enjoy the confidence of the Spanish national team, which selected him as sole leader for the World championships in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was unable to add a fourth World title in the widely predicted sprint finish however, but managed a respectable ninth.